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Manchester reviewed
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Manchester film reviews

The Tree

The Tree at Cornerhouse

Reviewed by Anne Ryan August 2011


During the long summer holidays Manchester's Cornerhouse is vital for the cinema goer who is not in thrall to the continuing adventures of the boy wizard or the Smurfs.

 

So on a damp summer Saturday I braved the clear up from the riots to spend an afternoon in the welcoming environment of the Oxford Road venue. As well as access to some of the most exciting and challenging independent films, fascinating exhibitions and a great restaurant, one can also pass a couple of hours enjoying a cup of coffee (and a very tempting looking cake) and browsing through a great collection of magazines and newspapers on the first floor – or just watching Manchester go by.

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Manchester lifestyle reviews

Messrs Comedy

MESSRS COMEDY: Are you ‘avin a larf?

Reviewed by Yvonne Cawley August 2011

 

Messrs Comedy certainly made me laugh when they performed an hour jam-packed comedy sketch show at the King's Arms pub in Salford. I’ve not been to a live comedy show for donkey’s years and so was really looking forward to it, coupled with the fact that the show had been performing to sell out audiences in London; great things were therefore expected.


It was also my first time in the King's Arms pub, which turned out to be a traditional, or as I call it a 'proper' pub with no finicky furniture or fittings, just a relaxed atmosphere with friendly bar staff and decent beer - see, I don’t ask for much! There was a spectacular stained glass window which gave the impression of being in a church, but a church that serves beer – now that may help get congregation numbers up!

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Manchester film reviews

Sarah's Key

Sarah's Key at Cornerhouse

Reviewed by Anne Ryan August 2011


Films dealing with the Holocaust are now no longer rare, most try to derive some life affirming lesson from the horror – notably in 'Schindler's List'. The events depicted in Kristin Scott Thomas's new film ‘Sarah’s Key’ are less familiar – the rounding up of thousands of Jews in occupied Paris in 1942. This horrendous action was carried out by French police, the people were imprisoned in inhuman conditions in the Paris velodrome, the Vel d'Hiv, and then deported to the concentration camps.

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Manchester book reviews

On Tolerance

On Tolerance: A Defence of Moral Independence

by Frank Furedi

Continuum Publishing Corporation (ISBN-10: 1441120106)

Reviewed by Denis Joe August 2011

 

Eamonn was not the most enlightened person I ever knew. He was the epitome of today’s liberal caricatured working class white male. He was sexist, avowedly racist, hated ‘queers’ with a passion, and was the machine setter on the drills section, at Automotive Products, where I worked back in the late seventies. He was extremely witty and very intelligent and was quite a reserved man until he had a few pints down him. Then you found yourself in the presence of someone who was not entirely comfortable with the world he lived in.

 

I left AP in 1980 but I met up with Eamonn in 1987. It was a time when one of the biggest news stories concerned a group of men from Manchester, who were charged with assault, occasioning actual bodily harm, for their long held practice of sadomasochism, which was entirely consensual. They had videoed some of their sessions for distribution amongst themselves.

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Manchester film reviews

The Tree of Life

The Tree of Life at Cornerhouse

Reviewed by Anne Ryan July 2011

 

Fans of the work of Terence Malik have to be blessed with patience - enduring years between films and then whilst watching the films themselves. His films are characterised by the use of voiceover, over achingly beautiful visuals and an attempt to tackle themes of existence and transcendence. The Tree of Life won this year's Palme d'Or, but has since divided critics - even over the scenes they like!

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Manchester lifestyle reviews

Year 10 Work Experience

Work experience for Year 10 school students

Opinion piece by work experience students Hannah Mason, Yasmin Redfearn, and Kathrine Payne July 2011

Hannah's comments on work experience:

Hannah Mason

Work experience is an opportunity for year ten students, that's 14-15 years in old money, to take time out from school – usually two weeks – to work with a local business or two. During the placement students are put in to a real working job environment and asked to undertake tasks they would be expected to complete if employed on a permanent basis. Students are able to find out what skills employers actually look for when they're hiring someone for a job vacancy. As well as learning about their chosen work experience from the inside, the student should also develop their self confidence and communication skills through practical situations they are responsible for. This actively influences their life now and for the future, both on a personal level and for the world of work, helping them when looking for a job, as social skills are extremely important in a working environment.

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Manchester lifestyle reviews

Museum of Liverpool

Museum of Liverpool

Reviewed by Denis Joe July 2011

 

“For me, architecture is more about creating spaces and environments that accommodate the people working and living in them. All through the process it is important for us as well as the client to have an environment that is inspiring and designed with the human being in full focus. I believe that architecture creates behaviour”
 [Kim Herforth Nielsen, Founder and Principal of 3XN]

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Manchester lifestyle reviews

Interviewing Melvin Burgess

Melvin Burgess interviewed

Impressions after interviewing Melvin Burgess by Hannah Mason, Yasmin Redfearn, and Kathrine Payne July 2011

After reviewing Melvin Burgess’ new book ‘Kill All Enemies’, we were privileged to be given the chance to go to his house and interview him about it. In the run up to this, we were feeling slightly nervous about interviewing a 'famous writer'. However, as soon as we met Melvin, we were incredibly relieved to realize that he was friendly and down to earth. As we sat around his kitchen table, eating chocolate cake he kindly bought for us, the questions started rolling.

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Manchester theatre reviews

Entitled

Entitled: A piece of work in a theatre by Quarantine

at The Studio, Royal Exchange Theatre

Directed by Richard Gregory, designed by Simon Banham, text by Sonia Hughes

Reviewed by Simon Belt July 2011


Quarantine describe themselves as having developed a reputation for working with 'real people' as opposed to actors on stage portraying fictional characters. There's a feeling from that self-promotion that Quarantine's scripts give their characters a more grounded, grittier depth. The pitch for Entitled by its Director, Richard Gregory, states that he 'wanted to explore some of the real stories of its performers - somehow turning theatre inside out'.

 

Abracadabra, and the pockets of the Royal Exchange's audience were turned inside out by some highly skilled and adept performers with some super technique. Was it that I just didn't get it or maybe aren't quite sophisticated enough for the highbrow irony and double bluff of Quarantine? Maybe, happy to hold my hands up to that, but you know, where's the benefit to society in treating audiences with utter contempt just so a performer can feel clever? 

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Manchester book reviews

Kill All EnemiesKill All Enemies by Melvin Burgess

Reviewed by work experience school students Yasmin Redfearn, Kathrine Payne and Hannah Mason July 2011

 

Yasmin's view of the novel:

Yasmin RedfearnMelvin Burgess has been writing child fiction books for just over twenty years and continues to amaze his audience with the work he publishes. From writing his first book ‘The Cry of the Wolf’ in 1990 to preparing for the release of his new book ‘Kill All Enemies’, it is obvious that Melvin has a real passion for writing about very realistic things that are closer to home than you may think.

 

For someone who has never had more problems than just a little row between siblings at home, it is hard to imagine what having parents with drinking problems or an abusive step-dad is like, but for many teenagers it's just normal life.

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